1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a technique configured to manage power consumption of an electrical device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A management system has been proposed that is configured to manage an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a multifunction peripheral for office use, or the like. This management system manages a plurality of image forming apparatuses installed in an organizational environment such as a company, group, or the like to thereby enable comprehension of the use state of the respective image forming apparatuses. For example, the number of pages used by respective functions such as copying, scanning, printing of the respective image forming apparatuses is recorded by counting to thereby enable use as charging information by collection and tallying of a count value that has been counted. Furthermore, a more detailed job log from the respective image forming apparatuses enables detailed analysis of a job, such as the ratio of color prints, the ratio of duplex printing, or the like. In recent years, in order to reduce the total costs of ownership (TCO) for a customer, the importance of device management applications has increased both for a customer, and for distributers who sell multifunction peripherals, printers, or the like. This is due to the fact that such applications have become a support tool for accurately comprehending the use state or implementation state of an image forming apparatus, consequently managing an image forming apparatus at a suitable cost.
On the other hand, in recent years, the technical development of smart grids has progressed in various fields as an intelligent power network. Although a conventional power network only supplies power, current implementations attempt to reduce costs, reduce power consumption, improve power use efficiency by configuring a communication function in power meters, power devices or the like to thereby enhance input and output of information and commands.
A power point technique has been used that applies a non-contact IC card techniques adapted to a smart grid. An IC chip is provided on the electrical device side and an IC card reader is provided on the power point side. When a plug is inserted into the power point, information in the IC chip is read out. Thus, by recording device-specific information in the IC chip, the presence/absence of a power point connection or the power use state for each separate device can be accurately comprehended.
The management system has the function of tallying the power consumption of respective image forming apparatuses in addition to collecting and tallying the job log and the count value. The demand for a reduction in environmental loads has led to the need for accurate comprehension of how much energy is consumed during operation of an image forming apparatus. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-53499 discloses a management apparatus that measures the power consumption of an image forming apparatus by use of the job log and the operating state of the image forming apparatus, or the like.
The management system tallies a count value, job log, power consumption amount or the like on the basis of a unit such as daily, monthly, by image forming apparatus unit, by device group, or the like, and produces a report. A client-server configuration is disclosed as a provision configuration for a management system. A plurality of image forming apparatus groups is managed by installing and executing a device management application on a server. The tallying of a count value or job log on a server requires periodical transmission of a count value or job log by the image forming apparatus to a server. Furthermore, the calculation of a daily or monthly tallying value requires setting of a tallying closing time or tallying closing date. For example, when data is summarized during the same day using a daily tallying, the time 0:00:00 each day is set as the tallying closing time. Furthermore, when the data from the 26th day of an immediately previous month to the 25th day of the current month is taken as a monthly tallying object, the 25th day of each month is the tallying closing date.
As described above, when data is transmitted to a server by respective image forming apparatuses in a client-server configuration, data transmission processing is required at least once daily. If it is assumed that an image forming apparatus is not used on a non-working holiday, in the absence of a report to the server side from the respective image forming apparatuses, it is not possible to determine whether or not use has occurred. As a result, even when there is no use of the image forming apparatus, data transmission processing is performed by the image forming apparatus to the server, and the server records the final updating date time of the job log and the count value. In this manner, although it cannot be determined whether or not the image forming apparatus has been used, a tallying process in relation to the tallying closing date or the tallying closing time can be executed since the collection of job logs or count information that indicates the respective types of count values that have completed by the final update date time can be determined.
For example, for the purposes of energy efficiency, an image forming apparatus is assumed that is temporarily placed in a non-operational configuration (power OFF) by removal from the power point for example. Furthermore, when in an operational configuration (power ON), since the network is offline, it is assumed that the image forming apparatus cannot perform data transmission processing to the server. Since the image forming apparatus above does not execute data transmission, the server can only comprehend the situation that the image forming apparatus does not exhibit a final update.
The purpose of the management system is to comprehend the use state of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, in order to actually execute tallying and report, the server must examine the state of each image forming apparatus unit that does not exhibit a final update, and omit the non-operational image forming apparatus from the tallying object settings. Furthermore, the network of the network-offline image forming apparatus must be restored, and processing is required to send the data.
Even when there has been no use at all of the image forming apparatus after the final updating date time resulting from the previous execution of data transmission processing, data transmission processing is required to record the final updating date time as described above. However, when there is no use, although the image forming apparatus is generally operated in energy efficient mode, notwithstanding the fact that there is no count or data updating of the job log, power economy mode is released and transmission processing must be performed in order to record the final updating date time. Therefore, it is desirable to suppress the occurrence of transmission processing and power use resulting from release of the power economy mode.
The management apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-53499 stores the power consumption required for each job, and calculates the power used by the image forming apparatus from the job history. However, the calculated power consumption actually a theoretical power consumption estimation value, and there is an error from the power that is actually used by the image forming apparatus. Furthermore, calculation of power consumption is based on the collection of log information such as a job log or the like, and therefore does not provide a solution to the above cases.